A Place Without Answers – God doesn’t always answer all of our queries, but we can still trust Him with the outcome.
Helpless Sacks of Sand – Tim Challies writes an interesting post about why we need sleep – and the daily reminder that our sleep pattern should be.
He Knows Me – A powerful excerpt from J.I. Packer on recognizing the importance of the fact that God knows me.
Since It Is Necessary, Use Words – Ed Stetzer does a good job of combatting the popular inclination to let our actions alone “preach the Gospel” and shares that “[t]he gospel is the declaration of something that actually happened. And since the gospel is the saving work of Jesus, it isn’t something we can do, but it is something we must announce. We do live out its implications, but if we are to make the gospel known, we will do so through words.
Silent Suffering – We are quick to rise to our own defense when we suffer injustice, but (perhaps more often than not) the Christian may be called to suffer without protestation, and there is good that can come from such an experience.
In many parts of Christendom, serious study of God’s Word has been given a renewed focus. It is commonplace to read articles deriding the “Christianity lite” that was popularized in many youth groups and that began infiltrating the American church at large. Studious ingestion of Scripture, and the commentaries that explain it, has become the “cool thing” to do. Careful exegesis of passages, contextual understanding and deliberate meditation on Scripture have gained in popularity. People recognize that serious understanding of God’s Word requires serious study of it.
This is a good thing. Scripture makes it clear that studying and dwelling on God’s Word is commendable. However, the Bible also makes it clear that there is a reason for it. We shouldn’t study Scripture merely as a means of increasing our knowledge or in delighting in our own understanding. Our pretense for acquisition of biblical knowledge isn’t so that we can glory in our own obtainment of it. Instead, as Joshua 1:8 indicates, the reason we are to study Scripture is so that we may increasingly obey it. Studying God’s Word should effect our heads, and our hearts. Our lives should increasingly conform to the pattern that Scripture articulates. If not, if we are studying merely as a means to win debates or to make erudite points in discussions, if in other words, our study is mostly about us, and not about God, than we have missed entirely the point of Scripture to begin with. After all, God’s Word is mostly (and rightly) about Him. We should study in to know Him more, and as a result, our lives should increasingly look as He desires.
Our study of Scripture should increasingly lead to more obedient lives. And as it does, our lives should increasingly bring glory to the One in Whom Scripture delights.
